Colorado Trip: Pike's Peak

The Big Deal.

The most popular tourist stop in Colorado Springs, bar none.  Pike's Peak.  We did it! 

Well, not hiking, obviously.  It's only 13 miles up, but the elevation change and the cold do require some gear.  We did the drive.  But even that's an accomplishment!  Our friends have lived out there for 3 years, but this was the first time they'd made the drive up.  Granted, they're like us, little homebodies at times, but the last time they tried to see the summit, they had to stop at the tree line.  If weather is too extreme at the peak, cars get stopped at the tree line, or lower, depending on the severity.  So it was new for them too!  Yay!

The day we went, it was clear, beautiful, windy and COLD!  Yeah, yeah, January, Colorado, mountain top... you and your logic!  Doesn't change the face that it was still REALLY REALLY COLD!  I've never been that cold before, ever!  The wind cut right through my hat and gave my ear windburn, actually.  In hindsight, I should have worn the other hat I'd packed for the trip - has an extra lining.  Also is a penguin - appropriate for such temperatures!  But that might be besides the point...  When they announced the conditions at the summit house (which they did regularly), it was announced that it was 19 degrees, with windchill putting it "well below zero."  Like I said - cold!

But the view!  You can see quite a ways at 14000 ft up :)

The drive itself was pretty too.  The snow was so dry, it would blow about in the wind and swirl, just like the sand did in Irwin.  Only so much prettier!

 

Along the drive, you got more of the gorgeous view, of course.  Crazy driving, too - tons of hairpin turns (NOT for those who get carsick!).  Thankfully, there were plenty of pullouts where you could stop and appreciate the view without risking driving off the mountain.

At the start/end of the drive is Crystal Reservoir, a very pretty stop in its own right.  The lake was frozen over (it's January, after all), so when we stopped there on our way out, the light reflecting was absolutely beautiful.  The chunks of ice on the lake just glowed!

 

 

And did you know Bigfoot has had a bunch of sightings in Pike Forest?  They even have a Bigfoot Crossing sign, just so you stay on the alert - you never know!

 

So, yes, if you are ever in the Colorado Springs area, you must try and go up Pike's Peak!  Be prepared for a crazy drive up, and some altitude sickness when you get to the top.  Dress for the weather - it will be much colder and windier at the top, even in the summer.  But the views are incredible - both from the summit and on the trip up/down.  Definitely a must-do!!

Colorado Trip: The Incline

I realize this was just a morning trip, but it's totally worth a post of it's own!

So, there's this little trail in Manitou Springs, just outside Colorado Springs.  The Incline is an old cable car track that's been disused and is just a trail now.  And it's pretty much the craziest trail I've ever set foot on.  This thing is just under a mile long, and goes up approximately 2,000 feet in that one mile.  It averages a 40% slope, and reaches a 68% slope at it's steepest.

As it clearly warns, this IS an extreme trail.  And yes, Zach is excited as all get-out to start climbing this thing :)

 

The steepest part, that 68% incline, is just before reaching the False Summit.  Yes, there is a False Summit.  Meaning, what looks like the top of the hill in almost all these pictures is really about 3/4 of the way through.  It levels out just a little, then goes back to a crazy incline to reach the top.  That little bit of leveling means that you can't actually see the true summit.  I knew it was there, and I still felt like crying when I saw how much further I had to go!

The view below is from atop the leveling at the False Summit.

I am a flat-lander, I will admit.  I was sucking some serious wind with the crazy elevation change on this trail.  That actually was what was getting me the most.  My muscles were holding up pretty well (though I did feel my legs the next day!), but I was having to stop very regularly to gasp for air.  I took just over an hour to scale the thing.  Zach took closer to 45-50 minutes (he was a bit ahead of me).  People who are used to the elevation will take under half an hour.

For me, it was like spending an hour on the most diabolical stair-climber ever invented.  I counted steps and made myself go a little further each time before stopping (am not fond of stair climbers, obviously).  When I'd stop to wheeze and try to catch my breath, I'd snap a few pictures.  So, yes, it is a fiendish stair climber, but it's a stair climber with an absolutely phenomenal view.

We made it!

Hooray!

You come back down via Barr Trail (the same one that goes all the way up to the top of Pike's Peak).  It's about a 3.5 mile round trip with Barr Trail too.  People do laps on it!  An older gentleman was doing laps while we were there.  Went up and down the Incline itself twice (he passed us), then after his third trip, he came back down Barr.  He passed us (again) on this trip down and told us, "Just didn't have a fourth one in me today!"  Crazy mountain folk!!  Course, if I lived out there, I'd probably be out there every or every other weekend, too.  Can't beat a great workout AND a great view!

Colorado Trip: Colorado Springs

So while in Colorado Springs, we had to see the sights.

The Air Force Academy. After Pike's Peak, it's one of the first tourist destinations people think of when they think of Colorado Springs. 

I love the symbolism in older or larger churches.  Part of why I love visiting cathedrals.  This one had its share as well.  Not as much religious symbolism in the overall building, since several faiths are served by the one building, but symbolism nonetheless.  The building uses a lot of aluminum, like the large cross in the Protestant Chapel.  The aluminum is meant to reference planes (Air Force Academy, after all).  And the backs of the pews have a strip of aluminum similar to the edge of a fighter plane wing.  The ends of the pews in the Protestant Chapel too, which are sculpted to resemble old airplane propellers. There are more specific examples in each of the individual chapel rooms, making it a very interesting building to visit.

 

Oh, and in the Catholic chapel there?  A statue built on a computer reconstruction from the shroud of Turin.  I couldn't get a picture of the statue itself, being in the chapel, but there's a view of the finished statue in the description below.  The display outside the room went into how they reconstructed the 3-D image from the shroud.  It was really cool!

 

Back into Downtown, a more unusual stop we made was the Money Museum, home of the American Numismatic Association.  C'mon - you knew we'd have some geeky museum stops too!  This one had some interesting exhibits, really, especially for someone who's collected coins for years.  They have a large permanent exhibit on the History of Money (yes, they have one of those giant rock coins) and the temporary exhibit was on money in the Civil War.  And did you know there is a Numismatist Hall of Fame?

The last real "sight" in town were the trail runs we took.  Colorado Springs is a brilliant place to live if you like being active and outdoors.  Besides the trails in the mountains just outside town, there are hiking and biking trails running all over the city.  Our friends live under a quarter mile from one of these, so several times during our stay we went out for a run to enjoy them.

With the hills in Colorado Springs, it's very easy to get up above the rooftops (or a lot of them, at least) and it gives you a great view.  Running at dusk meant that we got both gorgeous sunsets and wildlife coming out.  Kinda crazy turning a corner and seeing 9 deer just having dinner during your evening run!

 

 

After visiting my in-laws who live near a park and visiting our friends here, I have to say that having easy access to running trails is VERY high on my list of things to look for when we move next!

Colorado Trip: Garden of the Gods

First stop in Colorado Springs was shopping, actually.  So nice being in a town that has shops for our hobbies again!!  For example, both Zach and I needed to be fitted for new running shoes, but our closest running store at home is in Austin, about an hour away.  So we made sure to stop by one of the (4!!) running stores in Colorado Springs.  Still can't believe that we don't have a running store, with the base right there and so many people running regularly for PT.  But no, all we've got are big-box sports stores.  The type of place where "Well, the more expensive pair is supposed to be pretty good."  Yeah, need a little more than that when training for half and full marathons...

Funnily enough, we ended up being fitted for the same shoe!  Of course, my shoe size is almost half as small as his, so our identical shoe boxes looked more like a full-size and a mini-sized pair of something.  Was pretty funny, sitting there on the counter for checkout, actually.

For the first touristing bit, we hit up the Garden of the Gods.  It's a National Natural Landmark centered about some very scenic red rock outcrops.  There's about 15 miles of trails through the park, and it's a pretty popular place for hikers and trail runners and, on the easier trails, families with their kids.

It's a really lovely little hiking spot.  Not strenuous trails, but absolutely gorgeous, and right in town.  I mean, it was only about 20 minutes from our friends' place, from downtown, etc.  That's one of the great things about Colorado Springs - within 20-30 minutes, you go from shopping and restaurants and museums to absolutely stunning mountains and parks and trails.  Everything you could want, so convenient!

The photos below are from a spot in the park not to be missed.  The rock columns behind me are the Siamese Twins.  According to the park website, "SIAMESE TWINS TRAIL is an easy 1 mile roundtrip, with less than a 150 foot rise. There is a unique view of Pikes Peak through the natural window of the twins."  It is a very pretty view.  The reddish rocks, the bright blue sky, and the snow on Pike's Peak make for a really lovely photo.  Definitely worth the walk up there, if you're ever in the area.

 

And for a bit of fun, did you know Garden of the Gods has been a pretty, scenic little tourist spot since the late 1800s?  At Balanced Rock, another one of the landmarks in the park, a photographer and his son would take pictures for the tourists coming through, at $0.25 a person.  Those same photos would probably be $25 a person nowadays!  So, we got pictures in front the same rock as a hundred years of hikers before us, though of course we took ours ourselves :)

 

And a little bit of venting to wrap up this post - Murphy's Law is alive and well.  First real trip in months, first day touristing on the first real trip, and my camera dies.  We were hiking, and I was taking pictures.  We stop, I take pictures, camera goes back in its case, we keep walking, and the next time I pull it out to take pictures, it's dead.  The screen looks like a washed out red watercolor, or one of the stylized drug trip/hallucination/dream sequence sort of special effects from a cheap movie.  Not the screen itself broken, since I could scroll back and see the pictures from earlier that morning nice and clearly.  But anything from there on out...  red and blurred.  Bah!!  This camera is only 6 months old!!!  Thankfully it's still under warranty, so as soon as we got back, it got mailed in, and I'm hoping it can be fixed.  But, dangit Murphy, why must your law be so freakin' effective??

Review: Brick

This one was one of our "let's see what's new on Netflix Instant Watch" finds.  An indie movie I hadn't heard of before: Brick.

Plot:  A high school loner is contacted by his estranged ex-girlfriend, who's scared of something she won't explain to him.  When she turns up dead, he begins to investigate on his own, making his way into a web of drugs and murder.

So, it's film noir, but set in a modern-day SoCal high school.  And I mean true film noir:  the disillusioned, loner hero; the female lead who might be a damsel in distress or might be a femme fatale; the camera angles and play with shadows; the soundtrack, either very oppressively quiet or strident and jarring music (no Third Man zither, though); even Dashiell Hammett-esque speech patterns. 

However, it's still set in a modern high school.  So, jocks, drama kids, stoners, outcast nerds.  But all talking as if they're in The Maltese Falcon.  So get used to conversation that seems a little incongruous with the mouth it's coming from.  Seriously, Brendan (the lead) called Laura (the Girl) "Angel" in their last conversation, just like the final conversation in The Maltese Falcon.  I don't think I've EVER heard someone my age use that nickname in that manner.

The acting's very solid.  I like Joseph Gordon-Levitt in general, and this one proved to be another strong performance from him.  He plays the film noir hero very well, which can be a tricky balance - withdrawn and disillusioned, but not jaded or mean or unlikeable.  And for a movie in color, they did a very good job using the shadows the way a typical noir does (something a little easier in black and white, so definitely noticeable if they do it well in color).

Aside from the mind bend of the movie's premise (which was both a plus and a minus), my biggest frustration with the movie was the sound.  It was either very quiet or very loud, which worked with the story's events, but at the same time, it made it difficult at times.  And with the stylized speech patterns, the uneven soundtrack volume, and a tendency for hushed conversations, the dialogue was often challenging to follow.  There were a couple times where one of us had to look at the other and ask, "What did he just say?"  The mystery is supposed to be in events, not because you couldn't hear or follow the characters' conversations.

I honestly have no idea if I liked it or not.  Yeah, I know, watch a two hour movie and still can't tell if you like it.  There were points where I could pull back and appreciate the film noir tropes being used and reinterpreted in the modern story, and then there were times where it jarred and felt too surreal.  The acting and directing were all well done, but the story, the premise itself was what made it so unusual.  It's not an escapism movie, or a "make you think," Deep Subject sort of movie.  This was an "artistic" movie, if you know what I mean.

Overall:  No clue.  Not one for my shelf, but an interesting watch, especially if you like mysteries, indie films, or movies that are a little on the unusual side. 

And because I like series of character-based movie posters, these were the ones from Brick.  

 

Guess who's sorted her holiday pictures!

This girl!

Over the holidays this year, we went out to Colorado to visit very dear friends who were stationed in Irwin with us.  Hadn't seen them in about 3 years, so we took some time to go out and visit and catch up.  And to see Colorado Springs too!  

Well, after being out there for a week doing tons of sightseeing and playing with friends, there were obviously bunches of pictures to sort.  But they are sorted, labeled and I'm getting them written up now (goal: share the highlights before my semester starts next week!).

So, stay tuned!  Picture posts coming up this weekend (with the holiday, I've some time to write) but I was excited and proud of myself and just had to share  :)

Simply Simplistic Shawl: Test Knit

As I start another test knit tonight, I figure I should write up one of my "outstanding" finished projects first :)

Simply Simplistic Shawl

The Yarn:

Cherry Tree Hill Possum Lace Semi-Solid.  No, not American 'possum (opossum).  There's a critter in Australia and New Zealand also called the possum.  It's a pest creature too, funnily enough, accidentally introduced to New Zealand.  Does incredible amounts of damage, too, being there with no natural predators. During the control and conservation efforts, they found that the fur can be harvested and spun, blended with merino or another fiber, to make a warm, light yarn.  Interesting fiber, so why not give it a try?

 

Oh, and this yarn did indeed start as a semi-solid.  Then it fell victim to Sarah's and my adventures in dying yarn.  I was trying to make a yellow and green (Green & Gold!) yarn, but in trying to even out the color changes, the yellow bled a bit more than I expected and it became a mottled spring green.  Very bright green, really, but as my environment doesn't have all that much bright green in it, go for it!

Raveled here.

The Pattern:

The Simply Simplistic Shawl by Jennifer B. Law.  It's available as a Ravelry download, if you're interested.

It is indeed a very basic shawl, making it perfect for those yarns which you want to show off, but have colorways which are too busy for some patterns.  It’s one of those patterns that you can keep going until it’s as big as you want, so good for small amounts, or for larger skeins.  I only used about 30g of yarn (270 yds) and have a little scarf/shawlette sized piece.  As you're playing with the size, you'll see it's pretty customizable; just add more stockinette or more lace at the border as you please.

It is LOTS of lace-weight stockinette, though I'm sure you can use any weight yarn.  If you’re watching movies or kids’ swim meets (or other sporting events), this is probably perfect for you. It's very easy to put down and pick up, and doesn’t take tons of concentration.  Everyone needs those projects in their queues too. :)

Notes, Alternations, Etc.:

I just did the instructions as written. As I mentioned above, it's a very customizable pattern, so feel free to have just playing with it to show off your yarn.